CHENNAI: Present v. Future. Millennial v. Centennial. Champion v. Contender. King v. Prince. Magnus Carlsen v. D Gukesh. The Chess World Cup has its first marquee clash from an Indian perspective and the stakes couldn’t be any higher. Standing between Gukesh and a place in the semifinals — and two chances at qualifying for next year’s Candidates — is the Norwegian legend himself.
The two-match (and a set of tie-breaks if needed) series, beginning on Tuesday, is a tie loaded with subtext and narratives. For starters, Carlsen has stated multiple times that India’s board game revolution is just starting. “I think India is doing a lot of right things so far, and it is a matter of time before it is clearly the leading chess nation in the world,” he had said on the eve of the inaugural Global Chess League earlier this year. “... I’m looking forward to competing with and against the exciting young generation of Indian players.”
Unlike other players, the Norwegian actually means it. He displayed it only a few days ago when he walked up to shake R Praggnanandhaa’s after the latter had dismantled Hikaru Nakamura in tie-breaks in the fourth round. Then, there’s the prospect of Gukesh beating Carlsen over-the-board just weeks after becoming the youngest-ever player to have a published rating of 2750 in Classical.
Carlsen himself held the previous record. If it happens, you can make a case for the emergence of a new order in the game. Now comes the hard part. In sports, being compared to a bonafide legend is the easy bit. Beating them at their own game is what separates potential from the truly good. At the World Cup, Gukesh has continued to grow. Having overtaken Viswanathan Anand as India’s No. 1 in Classical, the 17-year-old, after the win over Hao Wang in the Round of 16, is ranked No. 7 in the world.
What has led the Indian teen to have a purple patch of this sort (he began the tournament with a rating of 2744 before climbing up to 2761)? Weeks ago, Vishnu Saravanan, his current coach, had shed some light. “He has become more consistent. In the last six-eight months, his openings have improved,” he had told this daily then. “He’s devoting more time to it than he used to. That’s the main difference.”
The pair also spoke about the importance of guarding against total blowouts. “Early on, what we discussed was even if ‘we have a bad day... shouldn’t be that bad. Your bad day should be somebody else’s good day’. It’s the kind of thinking we had. Now he doesn’t have so many bad days as such. That is what has made him stay at the top, he’s very consistent with results.” That consistency has been on display at the World Cup, Three of the four ties Gukesh has featured in has not needed tie-breaks. In fact, while Carlsen has lost a regular match (against German teen Vincent Keymer), the Indian has enjoyed serene progress.
Praggnanandha vs Erigaisi in all-Indian last eight
At least one Indian will have a guaranteed spot in the last four as R Praggnanandha will face Arjun Erigaisi in another of the quarterfinals. While the former beat Ferenc Berkes with white pieces to seal the tie, the latter drew Nils Grandelius on Sunday a day after winning with black pieces. The other Indian left in the draw, Vidit Gujrathi, will have to wait till Tuesday for the completion of his Round of 16 match with Ian Nepomniachtchi as both of the Classical games ended in draws. In the women’s section, D Harika will face a tie-breaker against Aleksandra Goryachkina. If Harika wins, she will enter the last four. Quarterfinals (Open): Gukesh vs Carlsen, Nijat Abasov vs Gujrathi/ Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana vs Leinier Dominguez, Praggnanandhaa vs Erigaisi.